Home

A small group of Human colonists have escaped a lingering death on the drought and war ravaged planet Earth. Sadly, their new home may not offer the gleaming future life they expected. Besides losing all their technology and tools, dodging lurking predators and finding few sources of food, they have something new to worry about. They are not alone. They may not find any welcome here More

A thought provoking story in a scifi setting. Forty-two teachers, scientists, engineers and their children, have just completed a twelve year deep-space journey to escape the war and drought ravaged Earth. A carefully selected band of hardened survivors, they are to be colonists on the planet Nakis. Lying at the edge of the galaxy, it’s a new world that they hope will let them build a safe life together. Unfortunately, within two days, their ship, all their supplies, tools and technology are destroyed in an unforeseen melt-down of the crystalline core of their laser-driven vehicle.

Scrambling up to take shelter in a rough cave above the valley floor, those watching the melt-down find that survival will mean resurrecting the ancient technology and forgotten skills of their Paleolithic ancestors. If dodging the lurking predators isn’t hard enough, soon they discover the uninhabited planet they are marooned on, isn't exactly uninhabited. Nakis has not provided the home they had willingly traded their old lives for. They have been reduced to foraging for subsistence. No strength, no defenses and now: powerful, potential enemies waiting in the darkness.

If lasting peace with the native humanoid species eventually comes, it will not be without incidents that try their empathic hosts’ patience. Rigid, bunker-mentality and religious stubbornness prevails among many of the original mission founders and a growing anger emerges that may doom the human colony. But a breakthrough cooperative experience binds them all together in a completely unexpected way from a source no one considered. Will this illuminate their path to finally finding the home they had hoped for, or will it drive a deeper and darker wedge between them and the Naku?

A former commune-dwelling goat herding hippie and guitar picker turned tree planter and ski mechanic, illustrator, wood carver and carpenter; author Richard Sutton left college and hitch-hiked to New York in 1972 with forty dollars in his pocket and no preconceptions.

"There, I met my wife, worked in advertising and design until I was an empty, hollow shell, then ran a retail gallery, becoming an Indian Trader in 1985." More travel followed and a home in New Mexico. He finally saw the light of day and began to write fiction more or less full-time, in 1996.

An historical fiction/fantasy The Red Gate began it all in 2009, then a sequel, The Gatekeepers in 2010. 2011, saw the release of his first SciFi novella, Home, and Troll, a prehistoric-fantasy, followed in 2012. 2014, Back to Santa Fe was released April 1st, writing as WT Durand and On Parson's Creek, a YA mystery was just released in October. He lives with his wife and their cats, raccoons and other boarders in New York.

Reviews

Review by:
Chris The Story Reading Ape
on Aug. 03, 2014 :
Having read one of this author's other, thought provoking story titled 'Troll', I was curious to see how he would tackle a Sci-fi story.
I was not disappointed!
Forget fighting, ray guns and vicious aliens in flying saucers.
Welcome instead, a small remnant of humanity who have landed on a compatible planet many light years from a war-torn Earth.
However, their ship and most of its supplies are quickly destroyed, leaving the technically advanced humans without their technology.
When every creature on the new planet seems to be out to eat or destroy them, the discovery of a native hominid species forces the 'Earthlings' to decide between flight or fight.
This is another thought provoking story.
When Humans finally reach another world and discover 'Aliens' what can they REALLY offer them to show they come in peace?
(reviewed long after purchase)

Review by:
Brian Clegg
on March 25, 2013 :
I don't get to read a huge amount of fiction any more, which is why it is particularly enjoyable when I do. At the moment I'm drifting back towards science fiction, which I had abandoned for quite a while, and had an enjoyable weekend with Richard Sutton's Home.

I thought to start with this was going to be a typical 'stranded in space/revert to savages' type novel, but in fact Home is much more about what it is to be human, and what it would be like to be dependent on a largely superior race. As someone brought up on Star Trek, I thought Sutton's humanoid and interbreeding aliens were very reminiscent of the Star Trek humanoid universe, complete with its explanation of early shared origins - and I don't say this as a bad thing.

Overall, Home is a gentle, enjoyable read. If anything it could have done with a bit more menace, but because a lot of it is about inner exploration (I was slightly reminded of Heinlein's early inward looking phase, before he got too self-indulgent), this isn't a problem.
(reviewed within a week of purchase)

Review by:
Steve Bartholomew
on Sep. 17, 2012 :
"Home" is a thoughtful metaphor about the phenomenon of immigration and the clash of different cultures. The author might have chosen to relate a story of Eastern Europeans immigrating to America during the 19th Century. Instead, his story takes place in the far future, with pilgrims from a depleted Earth traveling to a new planet. They are welcomed and helped by some of the natives, but despised by others. The discovery of a common DNA leads inevitably to inter-species romance with equally inevitable stresses and trials. Somehow people make do and survive. This is not a Star Wars tale, with ray guns and interplanetary blasters. Rather, it is a story of quiet struggles within, to come to grips with our own natures. A unique accomplishment.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)